5 Facebook Posts Not To Share

Facebook has super clever algorithms which claim they will show you more of what you want to see, but they don't always get it right. In reality as a business their main goal is to keep you on their app for as long as possible, and maybe their rubbishness is actually a way to keep me on the app for longer. At times my feed is full of posts I have already read and posts I don’t want to read. Maybe I need to unfriend a few a people, but I am interested if they share any actual life news, just not some of the random content they share. I am interested in my friends, but I would like to see less rubbish shared by them.  So please, for the sake of your friends, think before you share these kind of posts on your Facebook wall.

Title text over a blurred Facebook thread and the Facebook logo
Facebook is great for sharing information, but there are some things you shouldn't share

Content You Shouldn't Share On Facebook

1. “I don’t normally do this but if you love me comment below then copy and paste this as your status”

Ok, I paraphrase, but they all basically boil down to the same message. I didn’t do chain letters in the Nineties and I’m not going to do this twaddle now. If you want to know if people read your posts ask them something interesting or engage in conversation, but don’t ask them to post rubbish on their own wall to prove it to you.

2. Fake Baby News

These statuses are frequently seen around April Fools Day, but appear other times too and IT’S JUST NOT FUNNY. Unless you are 14 I guarantee there will be people in your 'Friends' list who have struggled to conceive or who have lost a baby. And even if there aren’t I just don’t get how pretending you are pregnant is funny. I’ll admit I think all pranks that involve making a fool out of other people are in bad taste and having a history of secondary infertility and baby loss I may be a little over sensitive, but I never found "I'm having a baby/ twins/ quads... actually I'm not" funny.

3. Cancer “Awareness Campaigns”. 

Every year a new version of this rubbish appears in my newsfeed. They basically consist of a status update designed to make people comment like “I like it on the stairs” or “I ate a squirrel for breakfast” then if you make a comment implying you actually believe what your friend says (you foolish person you) they send you a private message to let you know it’s about raising awareness for breast cancer and you now have to post some crap as your status. 

If you want to raise awareness of cancer share a monthly reminder for people to check their boobs or balls, share stories of the families who are missing a parent, child or friend due to cancer, better still donate money to a cancer charity or do a sponsored fundraising event. Please don’t make your friends look like idiots in the name of charity.

I don't normally share posts like these but my cat sneezed...
This is not a real post luckily

4. Out Of Date Posts From Dubious Sources

This isn’t just about the “fake news” that Trump was always on about, there are people who assume that everything they read online is true. Sometimes posts intentionally mislead you, other times it’s a joke or outdated information. I have no problem with people sharing posts from sites like the Southend News Network (even though on every posts someone will miss it's satirical) it's the shared out of date news or disproven science that surprises me. I wonder whether they click “share” before reading more than the headline? It’s worth checking out what else is on a page’s feed before sharing their posts too, I frequently see memes from racist pages being shared because they have created a more neutral and topical post e.g. for Armistice Day.


5. First Day Of School Photos With School Logos And Airport Check Ins

I share my whole life online and accept the risk that comes with the information I share, but I’m still careful about announcing my family's current location, names and if we are on holiday with an empty house left behind. Unless your Facebook security is pretty tight and shut down to friends only (and they are actual friends not people you went to school with and like to snoop on plus someone you met in a bar once) you might want to be a bit creative with your camera angles and timing of announcements.

But Do Share These


Facebook is ultimately a business and they want to make money so it isn't surprising that they encourage companies with Pages to pay them if they want their posts to be widely seen. It claims they are trying to show more of what people want to see but for some reason I see lots of “people on this list need a hug/ gift/ brain transplant” and “find out your bored as crap name by taking the first letter of your surname and your favourite mushroom” which have been commented on by friends, but not new posts from pages I follow and am interested in. If you want to support bloggers or small businesses please share, like and comment on their posts you might end up getting them a new customer and making their day. Unless the small business are sharing any of the stupid types of posts mentioned above, in which case they deserve to have a rubbish reach.

6 comments

  1. I totally agree with you on these, I still get shocked everytime I see the fake baby news ones - usually around April 1st.
    I always try to like lovely posts from my fellow bloggers when I see them pop up on my feed =)

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  2. Amen to this! The Breast Cancer one annoys me so much. The only way to raise awareness is to talk about checking your boobs not posting random things!

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  3. Totally agree with this! Especially about the school info! I always make sure james badge is out of shot or if its in I will edit it and cover it up! Our school has a strict social media policy especially as we have some children in foster care

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  4. Totally agree with these! Half the time I just scroll past as I never know which is real or fake half the time!

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  5. I love the last part, it will be really interesting to see what difference the latest changes make x

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  6. Yes totally agree on all of these! I very rarely scroll through facebook now as it's always full of these types of posts!

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